Origins…Change
…Core Beliefs
A
s you all know, on March 24th we will gather for our 17th annual Kaleidoscope Community Celebration. I urge you all to join me there to celebrate the wonderful school we have created, and to honor Rick Rappaport (Founder’s Award), Kathy and George Hicker (Inspired Education Award), and Mario Johonson (Jonny Eliga Spirit of New Roads Award).
This will be the last Kaleidoscope I attend as Chairman of the New Roads School Board of Trustees. After six full and active years, I will be stepping down (while remaining a committed Board member) and passing this unique privilege to Rick Rappaport - parent of two recent New Roads graduates - with the utmost faith in Rick’s ability to walk us solidly, confidently, and creatively into the future.
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T
he truth: so much of school is still about those three R’s. Every student who graduates from high school today needs to be able to (1) read and understand an appropriately complex piece of writing and have something interesting to say about it, (2) write a finished piece of work, and (3) 'do the math.'
And everyone who teaches knows how extraordinarily difficult it is to ensure that all students live up to these basic requirements. But there is a danger in this effort: a push toward ... well, toward boredom.
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ew Roads’ Center for Effective Learning (C4EL) has been very busy this year with expanded research and community outreach, and with continuing development and refinement of the Learning Tool - especially with respect to its ability to inform the assessment process.
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Kaleidoscope Invitations Are In The Mail!
Please Participate in our Key Financial- Aid Fundraising Event
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: February 15, 2012
Join us at the beach on March 24th for our 17th annual Kaleidoscope Community Celebration. Funds raised at Kaleidoscope (including ads, sponsorships, silent auction proceeds) – our largest fundraising event of the year – are dedicated fully and directly to New Roads’ uniquely generous financial aid program. Invitations are on their way to each member of our community, with information about how you can help make Kaleidoscope 2012 our most spectacular and successful event ever. Be sure to mark March 24th on your calendar and join us for dining, dancing, silent auction, laughter and plenty of New Roads cheer!
Film Society Commemorates Black History Month With Blaxploitation Film Series
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: February 14, 2012
Each February, the New Roads Film Society hosts the best in African-American cinema in honor of Black History Month. The Film Society is showcasing the often-overlooked “blaxploitation” genre this month. While usually dismissed, blaxploitation represents a milestone in American film history. As Film Society founder Jess Linde (who wrote an 18-page paper on the genre last year for his Independent Studies Project) will tell you, blaxploitation represents the first time in Hollywood history that black directors, actors, and writers produced films for the general African-American public.
Throughout February, Jess and teacher Mario Johonson will curate Film Society screenings of their favorite blaxploitation films, complete with popcorn and drinks. Screenings will take place throughout February and are open to everyone; no need to be a Film Society member.
VOTE NOW For New Roads
Help us win the Green Cup Challenge For The second year!
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: February 7, 2012
TIME IS RUNNING OUT! Please watch our video and vote for New Roads today!Last year we were the California winners of the inter-school Green Cup Challenge to reduce energy consumption on campus. Now we have the opportunity to win the video competition, but we need YOUR VOTE by February 15th. Show your support for the students who are working so hard on behalf of our school and our planet.
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Spectrum Program
Receives Prestigious Grant
Planting the Seeds of Success through a Student-run Business
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: February 9, 2012
N ew Roads’ Spectrum Program has launched the Student Education and Entrepreneurship Development (S.E.E.D.) program with a generous grant from the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation and the Tarjan Center at UCLA. S.E.E.D. is a garden- to- store business run by students on our Malibu Middle School campus under the leadership of Spectrum Program students and teacher Amy Neiman.
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New Roads Featured In
New Scientist Magazine
Using Cognitive Science to Improve Learning
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: February 2, 2012
New Roads School is making headlines again. On the heels of the June 2011 New York Times article and CBS Early Show segment, New Scientist Magazine published an article, 21st Century School, about New Roads School’s pioneering work with perceptual learning. This novel approach to teaching harnesses the brain’s significant ability to recognize patterns to dramatically enhance learning.
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New Roads Teacher Opens Solo Exhibit
Artist David McDonald’s Latest Exhibition Draws Rave Reviews
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: January 30th, 2012
High School Visual Art teacher David McDonald’s work currently is on display in a solo exhibition at Carter & Citizen in Culver City. David’s newest body of work is a collection of mid-sized abstract sculptures using materials like cement, found wood and fencing, and is his most personal work to date. ‘David McDonald: Self-Portraits’ has been called “an aesthetic paradox… acting as both protector and protected, aware and oblivious of the foundations they keep.” For David, these contradictions in his art are “candid, thoughtful and earnest. Each work carries with it a distinct personality, slowly revealing the artist and his labor.”
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Art Meets Technology In Digital Design
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: January 30th, 2012
Anew generation of illustrators and graphic designers are honing their craft in the High School Digital Design class. Taught by Omaha Perez, who spent nearly five years working as a computer graphic artist at Disney and DreamWorks, Digital Design teaches students to use technology to give life to their artistic vision. It also gives them practical experience in using animation and design programs that they may someday employ to bring 3D animations to new levels of expression or to illustrate a cult classic comic book.
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Half Brother (Band) and Garrett Lodge (DJ) Take Top Music Honors @ Winter Carnival
Athletes/Alumni Athletes Enliven Homecoming
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: January 26, 2012
On a day when rain threatened to spoil the show, New Roads musicians and athletes displayed un-dampened and undaunted spirit at our Winter Carnival and Homecoming festivities, January 21st. Our inaugural BEAT band and DJ competition was a highlight of Homecoming, with top honors going to 12th-grade DJ, Garrett Lodge, and to the Half Brother band, led by 10th-grader Rob Tilden.
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Engaging The Generations Council
In Multi-Generational Collaboration
By Tena Yatroussis - Posted: January 23, 2012
At the November meeting of the New Roads Generations Council, members enjoyed a presentation on intergenerational collaboration by Brie Wells, Regional Coordinator for California Dollars for Scholars. Setting the stage for her presentation, “Engaging Gen X and Gen Y”, Ms. Wells first quizzed each participant on his/her use of technology in daily life in order to determine each person’s adjusted generation; she then presented them with a comparison of work/life, family structure, social customs, technology and leadership from the ”Greatest Generation” through the “Millennials”. The exercise enabled participants to increase their understanding of how today’s world looks and feels through the filter of each generation’s unique experience. Ms. Wells closed with a blueprint for building cross-generational collaboration.
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Mario Johonson to Receive Jonny Eliga Award At This Year’s Kaleidoscope Celebration
In the Name of his Childhood Friend and New Roads Colleague
By Nancy London - Posted: January 23, 2012
Not everyone is lucky enough to find his or her calling in life. Veteran teacher Mario Johonson is. Mario is being honored with this year’s Jonny Eliga Spirit of New Roads Award in recognition of the heart and passion he brings to his classroom and to our community each day.
Mario never imagined he would end up in front of a classroom. “If someone had told me fifteen years ago that New Roads would be the venue in which I would achieve some of my proudest moments, I would have been very skeptical. Until recently, despite pouring most of my energy and effort into this place, I still somehow held something back; I still hesitated to call New Roads ‘home.’ ”
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Alumni Athletes To Be Inducted
Into Sports Hall Of Fame
New Tradition Begins at Homecoming, January 21st
By Chris Elder - Posted: January 18, 2012
Ana Ramirez, Stephanie Carrillo, Galeazzo Bentivoglio, and Earle “Ben” Seagle, will be the first inductees into the New Roads Sports Hall of Fame at Homecoming, Saturday, January 21st. While at New Roads, these athletes represented the best in New Roads sports; they were hardworking, passionate, and dedicated year-round scholar-athletes.
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New Roads Promotes Healthy Meals And A Healthy Planet with Meatless Monday
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: January 11, 2012
Each week, students at the Santa Monica Middle School and High School campus have an option to enjoy a tasty vegetarian lunch through New Roads’ Meatless Monday program. Meatless Monday is a popular national movement that encourages individuals and families to eliminate animal proteins from their diets for an entire day, once a week. By taking this simple step to reduce the amount of animal products in our diets, people can improve their health, reduce their carbon footprint and save precious natural resources like water and fossil fuel.
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New Roads BEAT – Voting is ON!
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: January 11, 2012
Our first New Roads BEAT competition for student bands and student DJs will take place at this year’s Homecoming and Winter Carnival on Saturday, January 21, 2012. YOU get to vote and show your support for the DJ or Band that you want to see perform live at the event in front of a panel of music professionals. Online voting will close at 5 PM on Sunday, January 15th at 5 p.m.
so get your vote in today.
The DJ Contenders:
Good Intentions (11th grader Chase Berglass)
Dr. Strange (11th grader Ryan Frankel)
Garrett Lodge (12th grade)
The Band Contestants:
Roxy Economics(featuring 11th grader Jake Erlandson and High School English teacher Zelda Harris)
Half Brother (featuring 10th grader Rob Tilden)
Twinge (featuring 11th grader Spencer Cappiello with friends Conner Root and Paul Nylund)
The Lie Berries (11th grader Daniel Bernstein and 11th grader Sultan Al-Khodari)
The top band and DJ selected by the judges will receive a prize package including assistance in posting an original sound track on iTunes!
‘My Hero’ Award Winner Visits New Roads
By Nancy London - Posted: January 11, 2012
Media Literacy instructor, Ronan Hallowell, welcomed Senegalese English teacher and filmmaker, Cheikh Darou Seck to his 12th-grade class to discuss Seck’s work with the 'My Hero Project' (www.myhero.com), a program using media and technology to celebrate the best of humanity and counter negativity and violence.
In 2004, Seck met My Hero founder, Jeanne Myers, and was inspired by her to begin making documentaries with his students about local heroes in Senegal. Eight years later, Cheikh arrived in Los Angeles to receive the My Hero Global Partner Award at the Annual My Hero Film Festival, held December 3rd at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
During his visit to New Roads, Cheikh discussed a film he made about women’s rights and empowerment in Senegal and also screened a short documentary about the effects of climate change in parts of Sudan suffering from chronic flooding, using the films as a way to expand students’ perspectives on global issues.
New Roads Selected To Participate In Public Art Installation, ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’
By Nancy London - Posted: January 11, 2012
New Roads School, under the leadership of art teacher, Marcia Moore, has been selected by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) to design and decorate a piano that will be part of LACO’s participation in the international performance artwork, “Play Me, I’m Yours” by British artist Luke Jerram
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Planting Their Family Tree
By Kellyn Allavíe - Posted: December 12, 2011
As the culmination of a Humanities unit focusing on immigration, Kellyn Allavíe's sixth-grade students completed a family tree project by holding a small ceremony celebrating their family members who immigrated to this country. Initially, students were asked to research their family trees in order to find at least one immigrant ancestor.
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Erasing The “Predictable Face” Of Physical Education
By Chris Elder - Posted: December 9, 2011
Seeking to convey her own passion and discipline for life-long fitness, Elementary School P.E. teacher, Jeanine Andrade-Locke, completed a summer institute for educators at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and brought back what she was searching for – to the benefit of all her students.
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By Nancy London - Posted: December 6, 2011
Student entrepreneurship is blossoming on our various NRS campuses. At the High School, 20 students currently are enrolled in Business 101 where students “learn before they earn,” says Assistant Head of School, Pat McCabe, who has taught the class for the past nine years. The purpose of the class is to introduce high school students to the basic principles of business and financial literacy, but not in a merely theoretical way.
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Jazz Bands Serenade Full House At Typhoon Restaurant
By Nancy London - Posted: December 8, 2011
While the wind was trying to “blow the house down” on Wednesday, Nov. 30th, forty New Roads High School musicians representing four different jazz ensembles blew the roof off from inside Typhoon Restaurant at Santa Monica Airport. The ensembles, under the inspired leadership of Band Director, Scott Roewe, played to a sell-out crowd and showcased a repertoire ranging from classic jazz (Charlie Parker’s Scrapple from the Apple) and spirituals (Wade in the Water) to a Yiddish holiday medley (Holiday Medley Leontovych).
By Chris Elder - Posted: December 9, 2011
Raising their voices against rising college costs, nearly 100 New Roads High School students staged a walkout Thursday to join a teach-in on the UCLA campus.“By the time we got there we were so passionate we ended up speaking from our hearts,” said 12th grade student Jordan Johnson. For Jordan, like many at New Roads who plan to attend a UC campus, the tuition increases hit close to home.
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By Chris Elder - Posted: December 9, 2011
New High School baseball coach, Matt Steinhaus will join the Jaguar lineup in January, bringing with him a wealth of experience, including 15 years with Santa Monica Little League where he currently serves as Board President. Already acquainted with some of the players and impressed with the Jaguar’s successful two-year advance to CIF-SS Division 7 semi finals, Matt sees tremendous potential for this team and plans to build on their strengths.
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Community Members Participated In New Roads’ First Ever Blood Drive
By Nancy London - Posted: December 9, 2011
On, December 7th New Roads High School Student Council hosted a Red Cross Blood Drive at the Santa Monica Middle School Campus. Congratulations to the student council on a well-organized and successful first foray which exceeded goals set by The American Red Cross. Many thanks to the thirty community members who donated their 'gifts of blood'!
November 2011 Articles
By Nancy London - Posted: November 18, 2011
By Chris Elder - Posted: November 15, 2011
By Nancy London - Posted: November 8, 2011
By Chris Elder - Posted: November 7, 2011
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: November 3, 2011
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: November 2, 2011
October 2011 Articles
By Chris Elder - Posted: October 30, 2011
By Chris Elder - Posted: October 17, 2011
By Chris Elder - Posted: October 17, 2011
By Chris Elder - Posted: October 6, 2011
By Chris Elder - Posted: October 6, 2011
By Chris Elder - Posted: October 6, 2011
By Tyrone Sandaal - Posted: October 6, 2011
By Chris Elder - Posted: October 3, 2011
September 2011 Articles
By Chris Elder - Posted: September 26, 2011
By Tena Yatroussis - Posted: September 26, 2011
By Dawn Fairchild - Posted: September 13, 2011
By Chris Elder - Posted: September 8, 2011
By Nancy London - Posted: September 1, 2011
By Nancy London - Posted: September 1, 2011
By Nancy London - Posted: September 1, 2011
